November 22nd 2022

Chapter 326
Our Production of Room Service

Dear Maya,

I don't know if you will have heard about it by now or not. I asked my mom and dad not to say anything, but I know sometimes they can't help themselves. I could just see them telling Uncle Shawn about it, because it's their 'Shawny' and then he could have accidentally told you. And if none of them told you, then I'm not sure Riley would have been able to keep it to herself either. Or Dylan. Those two are really kind of perfect for each other, aren't they? Anyway, if that didn't happen, then that's good. I don't know if it's weird, but after we talked about all this in letters last year, all I could think about was that I wanted to let you know this way. Who knows, maybe years from now it'll be nice to look back and consider where our adventure began.

You know how hard it hit us both when we learned that it wasn't one or the other but both of us that was the reason why we weren't getting pregnant, that no matter what we did, it wasn't going to happen for us that way. Truth be told, for a while, I wasn't sure we were going to survive this as a couple. We both had to make our peace with it, and it was hard to even know where to begin. But we pulled through in the end. We had to set one dream aside, but it didn't mean it had to be over, right? So, we started to look into our options. Surrogacy, fostering, adoption… We settled on fostering. It was easy to say that we wanted a baby, but that's only one part of the whole picture, isn't it? We wanted to be parents, and if we brought a child into our home and we could love and care for that child, then it didn't really matter how old they were. So, we started going through the process, to become foster parents.

We got the call just yesterday. A two-year-old boy needed to be placed and they called us. His name is Toby, and he'll be here in the morning, which means that by the time you receive this letter, he will be here. We spent all day preparing for him. Yes, we had a room already set up, but once we found out about him especially, Milena wanted to make sure it would be his room. It was too bad that Tony's not in town, but he promised to overnight us something for the room, a bit of art for Toby. He got a kick out of imagining the two of them, getting to be buds, Tony and Toby. I hope that they can be, I really do.

I'm scared, I have to say. Not a bad scared, but maybe that was what it felt like, when you were going to have your first baby? I don't know what will happen, if Toby will be with us for a short time or long, but still, he's on his way, and we can't wait to meet him. I can't wait for you to meet him either.

Take care,
August

.

One day after the letter, three days before New York

It was probably just as well that, when Maya read August Matthews' letter, Lucas was just across from her, in the kitchen, or her cry of surprise would have brought him running, misinterpreting the situation. Instead, he got to see such a smile spread on her face, and when he asked her what was going on, even as she was reaching for her phone, she passed him the paper and signed for him to read, which he did, quickly understanding what was going on.

She'd called Riley, who was immediately sent speaking a mile a minute out of relief that she no longer had to keep this secret from her best friend. According to her, being so close to the birth of Baby Orlando the fourth, it had been a lot to ask of her not to talk about her little brother's Big News. By now, August and Milena had had Toby in their care for a few days already, and she had apparently been hanging on by a thread. It so happened that, when Maya called, she was already at her brother's place, so she was able to ask them directly if they would mind some more visitors.

As much as they would have liked to bring everyone out there, they thought it best not to crowd the couple, and especially not to crowd the small boy. According to Riley, he was still adjusting to his new circumstances and could perhaps be overwhelmed if there were too many people around. She was out there on her own at the moment, Dylan having stayed home with the kids. So, it would be just Lucas and Maya heading out to August and Milena's to meet their foster son. None of the Friar girls had been told about him yet, not even Marianne, the better to remove the temptation to want to follow.

Soon after arriving, they knew it had been the right call. The two-year-old, with a load of ginger hair sprouting from his head, was stuck like glue to Milena Janacek. He was so utterly quiet, but the young woman held him, and he looked he never wanted to leave her. He stared at the new people around him out of a pair of near mournful brown eyes, but always after a while he would look back up at Milena, and she would smile at him, and he would lay down his head at her shoulder, his hand gripping at her sleeve.

"If she puts him down, he'll just shadow her, wherever she goes," August reported with a smile like he was already so proud of this little guy and his choices in life. "If he can't follow her, he gets distressed, but then I'll sit on the floor next to him, and I'll talk to him, and he'll look at me and come to sit down in front of me. This morning, when she showered, he actually climbed in my lap and stayed there. We watched videos on my phone." Toby had warmed up to both of his foster parents, they could tell, but of the two, he'd just latched on to Milena in a whole other way, and the feeling was so mutual. To look at her face, it was like all the pain and grief of the last year and then some had been pushed well and fully in the past. All that mattered now was this precious boy who looked at her like she was the whole world.

x

It had been very important for Maya and Lucas both, in bringing all their girls with them, that it wasn't just about Lucas having them all day, each day, while Maya was off on musical business. The same went for Sam and Cara both, even as Dora and Mateo had finally arrived with Francesca, Tim, and Felix on the third day since the rest of them had been in New York. Yes, the primary reason why they'd come out here was the musical, but they were going to make the most of it in having their families here. So far, they hadn't gotten to do as much of that as they would have liked, but that was alright, because they had a plan for their third night, something akin to a Sleepster even if it took place in one of their hotel rooms.

Of course, this entire trip had not exactly shaped up the way they had imagined. Sure, in great part it was just as they'd meant it to be. They were getting to be involved with the auditions, and that had been a strange and wonderful experience all around. It was the other part, with the kids, that had been sort of… redirected, right from day one, thanks to those two little dogs they'd found out on the street. After that, there was no chance for the duo not to be on the Friar sisters' minds every morning, day, and night. They wanted to know that the two of them were okay, and even when they'd call in with an update or when they'd go and see them, it wouldn't be enough. Lucas suspected that there was just a bit of transference, like from the moment they'd found these dogs they had remembered their own little gang back home and put all that love and devotion into the injured pair.

They were doing better, at least, which was great news. Neither one of them looked at risk to get worse, and provided that they received the care that they needed and deserved, there was no reason why they shouldn't thrive. All they needed was that: caring people in a caring home… They had no owners out there. As far as the people they'd spoken to could say, it was likely that the puppies had been acquired but then abandoned and left to fend for themselves for some reason. There was no telling exactly how long they'd been out there, but it was a good thing they had been found when they'd been found and brought in to be seen to. One of the people at the clinic had suggested that maybe the Friars had been meant to find them, and Lucas and Maya were glad that the kids hadn't been there to hear it. Not to say that they hadn't been thinking about it, genuinely looking into bringing them back to Texas, but until they knew for certain one way or the other, they just didn't want to get anyone's hopes up.

Of course, now that their young cousins had arrived, the sisters had wasted no time at all to tell the trio about the puppies, even the baby, who was in his father's arms whenever he wasn't with his mother to be fed since he'd arrived, for how much Sam had missed him. They showed them photos that they had taken on the first day, and then the next day when they had gone to visit, and even that third day, too. The pair had been getting better each time. Now, Francesca and Felix both wanted to see the dogs, too, and they were promised that they'd get to go along the next time they went to see them.

"What's going on over there, you think?" Lucas quietly asked Maya, nodding across the room. While the two of them and Cara were preparing their freshly delivered room service dinner for the kids, cutting this and that into smaller pieces, adding a sauce here, pouring a drink there, the kids were still playing around, under the supervision of the other parents. Specifically, Marianne was lying on the carpet, with Lucy and Mackenzie around her in a near huddle, talking to them even as she sometimes bent her head to write something on the pad of hotel paper they'd found. Kacey and Remy were playing with their cousins, but every once in a while, they would go back to see what their sisters were doing, or possibly bringing over information, as Marianne would immediately go and start writing again. Maya considered all this for a moment before turning to her husband with a knowing look. "What?" he asked.

"Dog names," she whispered, and he bowed his head. Of course. It didn't matter whether they knew for sure that they'd bring the dogs home or not. As far as they were concerned, they were already part of the family, and they wanted to give them names they picked. Lucas let out a breath, which only made her chuckle quietly.

"Should I call the airline?" he asked.

"Might not be a bad idea," Maya replied, then, "What if we don't tell them until we get home?" Oh, he kind of liked this plan. He could already imagine the looks on their faces when they realized the puppies had come to stay… Lucas pointed to the room door. Maya nudged him toward it. "Airline, yes, go."

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners